Tick tock, One little clock
by Snow white Kitsune
Summary: It's amazing how easily a turn in the road can change everything. Needless to say that thanks to a slight costume alteration, Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn't so human any more, and The Doctor isn't the only Timelord left...TtHChallenge#5164:Time Lady Buffy


_Intro: _Buffy didn't know it at the time but hidden in the folds of her Halloween dress was an old pocket watch. Now, with Halloween over and the dress ripped and torn, Buffy intends to throw the dress out but instead finds the 's where you take over but the idea I have is: We know the watches of Time Lords stay behind when the Time Lord takes up their Time Lord mantel again - e.g: We see a young Tim Latimer [during The Family of Blood] has the watch during the War and an older Tim, in a wheelchair, still has the watch.) Maybe it was the Doctor's watch (or another Time Lord who lived and died human), passed down and sold through time. Without a Time Lord soul it's just a regular watch ... until Halloween. The Chaos spell recognizes the watch for what it is but as the costume it's connected to isn't the Doctor's (and the body is female) the magic has to do something different. Buffy became an 18th century lady during that time - a fairly generic lady - she's pretty much still Buffy or rather a version of herself. The watch could latch onto that. The power/soul within is still there when the spell ends. When Buffy finds it, the natural instinct is to open it, right? The spell made the power inside Buffy's, thus when she opens it ... Time Lady Buffy. Challenge .

Disclaimer: Btvs belongs to Joss Whedon and Doctor Who is the BBC's.

'_Where does it come from? This quest, this need to solve life's mysteries when the simplest of questions can never be answered. Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we'd be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. That's not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here.'---Mohinder, Heroes, Series 1._

Chapter 1

In the back of his shop, in front of the intact bust of Janus, Ethan Rayne's unconscious body laid sprawled on the floor, until just before dawn. When he woke up, greeted by a splitting headache, a horrified Ethan realized something had gone terribly wrong- Rupert's magical signature and that of his pesky Slayer-sidekick, which were normally all over this little town like a cloak, were gone. He stared wildly around and he-Must have hit his head, when he slipped and fell. He must have been lying on the floor all night long! Ethan glanced at his Halloween decorations, and decided to get medically checked out before coming back and cleaning up. A small smirk crossing his lips.

Rupert and his Slayer were gone, but in the end that just meant more fun for him.

On a quiet street, the exterior of a smug and self-satisfied woman's house had been artfully and carefully decorated with thousands of toothbrushes.

Meanwhile unbeknownst to the universe as a whole, time and reality had shifted, reshaped itself like play dough, key individuals were missing- their very presence removed from the town, with others taking their place. As the Earth slept on, unknowing…

As a power beyond magic worked its work, removing all traces of them, a new slayer awoke with a gasp to her new world.

Kennedy would only last a year.

Her Watcher- Wesley Wyndam-Price would die at her side.

Rupert Giles remained as curator of the British museum, living out his live in mediocrity, but content, eventually marrying a woman named Olivia, he had no children.

Joyce Summers, now a successful gallery owner gave a sad sigh as she stared at _the room_, the room they'd prepared for the child that she and Hank had never been able to have. The factor which had distanced them in their marriage. The stillbirth of her girl, her baby, before she could even be given her name…Her Buffy Anne.

Xander Harris continued his day to day life, with his best buds, Willow and Jesse content with his lot in life, and mocking Queen C. from the shadows. Never thinking to look for the monsters in the dark.

And as for the Mayor, well he couldn't understand for the life of him how the Hellmouth had healed and sealed over. But that really messed up his plans for world domination. Back to playing the stock-market it seemed…

* * *

Meanwhile, in an entirely different galaxy the activity was overwhelming. The excitement of the very webs of time at the presence of a new and alive one of its children was palpable. A pure gallifreyan, untainted by her people's prejudices and instead with the capacity of a human to love…

Her potential was endless.

Countless worlds beyond Earth, in a galaxy far-far away suspended in the time vortex was a ship, a TARDIS.

A sentient ship that hummed with happiness as it bonded with its pilot for the first time, their minds were shared they were together and whole and bonded. And the universe sang.

Inside what could only be seen as an oversized spaceship which defied human laws of physics, within one of its opulent bathrooms that the sympathetic ship had created for its mistress, the being once known as Buffy Anne Summers sat on the cool, tiled floor, gasping for breath, while tears streamed down her face. Vomit and acid burned her throat and the back of her mouth despite her respiratory bypass. Nausea still clutched her stomach giving it an occasional squeeze. She was still dizzy, but that was passing.

Buffy's eyes widened and her breathing deepened as she considered the past few hours

She wasn't human anymore. . .

Alien, Timelord, from the planet Gallifrey, and she was in her TARDIS…

The mental presence within her own mind hummed happily, hummed welcome and expressed pleasure that they were finally together after it had been waiting for Buffy for so very long.

She had met a god!

Though, her newly evolved mental capabilities supplied that technically, it hadn't been a God per say, simply one of the old ones. A manifestation of the chaos in the world.

Buffy closed her eyes as her vision swam- remembering the 'god' of Change and Beginnings, Janus . . .And the events that lead up to that meeting.

HALLOWEEN, OCTOBER 31, 1998:

"Well…costumes…any ideas…" Buffy sighed, staring around the new costume place that had opened in time for Halloween, probably hoping that the hyped-up sugar loving kiddies would swarm, which they were.

A shrewd marketing strategy.

Curse Snyder and her Nazi-esque ways, as they'd already planned a movie night on her one night off from they slaying gig, but nooo that impotent moron had to step in and demand that she, Willow, Oz and Xander kiddie sit.

Calm down Buffy, she told herself. Even if she was highly tempted to find something sharp and put herself out of her misery.

Buffy had eventually settled upon a crushed red velvet dress, very old-fashioned, most likely from Angel's period of history, and wasn't that just creepy that her boyfriend had a bi-centennial.

Posing before the store mirror, she allowed a small smile to cross her features, she was so going to blow Angel away.

He wasn't going to know what hit him.

After paying she headed out, never noticing the glint in the shop-keeper's eyes, but neither of them noticed the watch hidden within the bodice of the dress, a watch patterned with what could be rightly construed as the stars.

Stars of an entirely unknown constellation.

An empty watch now, but would shine with promise very soon.

* * *

She was so going to be late.

Buffy Summers huffed her silent frustration as she desperately applied the finishing touches to her make up. At this rate she wouldn't be able to meet Xander or Willow before the whole 'take-the-kids-round-town-so-their-parents-don't-have-to-put-up-with-their-sugar-highs' trip that Snyder had arranged due to the kindess in his shrivelled troll like heart.

What a fan-fucking-tastic plan that had been.

With an irritable growl she began to change into her own outfit.

Having decided against the black wig that came with the outfit, due to god knows what being present in that nest of rats tails, her golden blonde hair was instead teased into loose curls and pinned up upon her head, allowing a few curls loose both to highlight the curve of her neck and also to frame her face, emphasising her emerald green eyes.

In her frustration when placing on the costume, mainly due to the whole thing with being late and all, but partially due to the obscene number of hooks and zippers in the costume, there was a sudden thud as something slipped to the floor, and rolled under the bed.

With an irritated sigh, she clambered to her hands and knees, her fingers slipping around a circular metal object.

Lifting it into the light, she gazed in awe at the pocket watch in her hand, it was a silvered colour and beautifully patterned with circles, constellations and orbits. She clicked it open and noted that it also kept perfect time.

Nifty.

Tilting her head thoughtfully, she eyed the watch which was held on a chain long enough…to be a necklace.

A smirk curved her lips up, after all she may be doing this unwillingly, but goddamn it she'd look good doing it.

And as for impressing Angel, well…

She wouldn't need to go as a simple wench or air headed noble. She fastened the pocket watch around her neck in a stylised necklace using some good ol' slayer ingenuity.

With a smile of satisfaction she pulled on the high heeled shoes to match the outfit, strapping some stilettos to her garter (though it was Halloween there would always be a few 'rebels'), once more nodding her satisfaction she bid her mother farewell, unaware that it would be the last time….

Bustling out of the house, clutching her multiple skirts in an attempt not to a) look utterly ridiculous and b) not fall over on her way to meet the other Scoobies.

She knew exactly who she was going to be tonight.

Lady Time.

Tick-tock.

* * *

Buffy was looking very much the mysterious lady, having added a black cloak to her ensemble with the hood up to shadow her face only revealing her chin, neck and the watch that glinted in the lamplight, but the kids seemed to find it cool. Along with attempting to trip her by standing on it as she went down flights of stairs…adorable little hellions…

When she noticed the mutual depression of the previously sugar-high mass, she curiously asked her little trick-or-treaters-"What did she give you?"

In answer, they all pulled out plastic covered toothbrushes from their bags. Buffy was so surprised and shocked her mouth dropped open. Disgust evident.

"She has got to be stopped!" Buffy declared, taking her classic 'slayer' stance, any-one who gave out dental products on Halloween was truly evil.

And then, Ethan Rayne's chaos spell came into effect, and in that moment everything changed….

* * *

Not to long before, in the back of Ethan's shop the mage collapsed after completing his spell. The Power rushed out and hovered momentarily before gathering itself and launching itself outwards, it sensed the possibility of a being that would be so much more powerful than this pathetic little dust ball of a world and instantly honed in on it. Focusing solely on its prospective new host and the change it would bring.

The universe was manipulating things for its own ends, the PTB had corrupted themselves, but they would not corrupt this one. No, she would become so much more than them, the lady of time in every sense.

No longer could The Doctor stand alone in watching over the fabric of time and space.

The events spinning into existence were far too important for Time's defence to be left to only one.

The Darkness was coming, the end of everything if the Universe's protector did not succeed.

He would need aid.

He would need an understanding that no human companion would ever be able to provide.

The watch around the neck of Buffy the vampire slayer began to heat, as it's original purpose was returned to it. The mind of a Timelord came into existence, with all the knowledge of its previous owner, but created for another.

Created to bond with the woman who held it.

Created for the soul purpose of her opening the construct and becoming something so much more than she was.

Created to form an entirely new breed of Gallifreyan.

And as though encouraged by time, Buffy Summers' gaze fell to the now glowing necklace fastened round her neck and all but burning the part of her chest in rested upon.

"What the…" She murmured softly, fingers reaching to brush the now warm metal.

It is so very hot to the touch and she could feel it ticking insistently in her hand.

And the whispering…

In her mind, telling her to just reach out and just open it, what harm could it do? Just to see what it was? No harm at all in that…Her hand slides to the clasp as if on its own, and the time piece seems to get heavier in her hand as she slips it from her neck to study more closely, and the ticking gets louder and more defined, closer.

'_It's time.'_

"Counting down from 9-5-0, so many more miles to go…" She murmured, a barely remembered slayer dream, as she flipped the clasp open.

The watch front opened and the golden glow that always glowed out of the time piece erupted, entering her through her eyes, nose and mouth.

She found herself choking on the power of the golden inferno which bubbled through her, she was the eye of the storm, the centre of the power that rushed through her; simultaneously removing her from the slayer line even as it took her original abilities to be involved in the creation of a new being with the sheer power of Time itself. She felt her whole body alter, her cells, her very essence. Oh Rassilon…

Slamming into her, the power of time itself poured itself into the Slayer-Buffy rolled up her eyes and collapsed in the midst of terrified and confused children. Who fled, screaming into the night.

And so, even as she changed, unnoticed by any, an eerie mist that seemed almost alive began to swirl around jerking slayer, until the gold consumed them and then both she and it vanished.

* * *

She felt warm…

Too warm.

Why?

Floating or falling, she really couldn't tell at this point.

'A TIMELORD WHO DESTORYS AN ENIRE SPECIES FORFEITS THEIR REMAINING LIVES- AND THUS THE TITLE OF TIMELORD.'

The words rang in her mind insistently, a tenant.

A commandment, filled with all the seriousness of any law on the Constitution she'd seen.

She almost choked as she felt something inside her shatter and reform, eyes snapping open unseeing and unable to hear the sounds of the universe which now enveloped her.

Able to hear the echoing voice in her mind.

How did that work then?

'ALL TIMELORDS ARE PLEDGED TO PREVENT ALIEN AGRESSION BY TIME ACTIVE RACES, BUT ONLY WHEN SUCH AGRESSION IS DEEMED TO THREATEN THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION OF A PARTICULAR TIME ZONE.'

The voice sounded almost like a school teacher, drilling it into a student, she noted distantly.

What the hell was this?Her back suddenly arched upward as if powered by an electric shock. Her lungs sucked back huge volumes of air, almost causing her to hyperventilate due to the trauma of recalling that she hadn't been able to draw breath for the past several minutes, in too much shock. Without thinking about it her hand came up to her chest, verifying a heartbeat. And her heart was most definitely beating… probably 300 times a minute, was her frantic estimate.

'IT IS FORBIDDEN FOR GALLIFREYANS AND LESSAR SPECIES TO INTERBREED.'

She gasped and writhed on what appeared to be a grated floor, feeling as though she was imploding from within, going up like a furnace. Flesh on fire and yet not burnt to a crisp. Forcing her awake, forcing her to breathe damnit, forcing her body to work in ways it never had, and pouring previously unheard of knowledge into her mind.

So much to know, so much, so much, it made her mind scream.

Her mind was burning and re-shaping, tears falling down her cheeks.

'ALL TIMELORDS SHALL WORK TO PREVENT TIME ACTIVE RACES FROM DAMAGING THE WEB OF TIME.'

She was choking on the power of the golden inferno which bubbled from within, she was the eye of the storm, the centre of the power that rushed through her; simultaneously destroying and creating with the sheer power of Time itself. She felt her body alter, her cells, her very essence. Oh Rassilon…

Who the hell was Rassilon?

Rassilon…

The First, the greatest, the eldest…

'The eldest what though,' her mind questioned persistently?

'ALL TIMELORDS SHALL WORK TO PREVENT TIME AWARE RACES FROM AQUIRING GALLIFREYAN TECHNOLOGY.'

Her usually brilliant green eyes, however, glowed like a thousand suns, showing the true inferno which ran through her. She could see it all, the universe, time, the make up of everything. She could feel the Earth moving beneath her feet, feel as it rotated around the sun, felt the movement of time around her which enveloped her welcomingly in its current and it was almost like returning home, though she knew she had never been here before. Like a mother's embrace it warmed her, she could see everything that was, everything that would be, everything there could be and everything that had to be.

'ALL TIMELORDS SHALL FOLLOW A DOCTRINE OF NON-INTEREFERENCE WITH TIME UNAWARE RACES.'

Her body glowed and flared with the same energy that enveloped her mind and she seemed to be swallowed up by the conflagration.

Her cells reworked themselves, became oh so much more than what they had been, her flesh re-knitting and re-working itself. Flaws of the human form corrected itself, bone structure shifted and her entire bodily makeup altered becoming more ethereal, more beautiful.

Less human.

Something other.

Something more.

'TH HISTORY OF ANY PERSON OR PLANET, AS IT IS RECORDED OR PREDICTED IN THE MARTRIX CANNOT BE CHRONOFORMED TO ALTER ITS DESTINY.'

She heard a voice inside her head

"**Time Lord....." **

Then flashes, so many flashes of things she'd never seen before, places, people, things and that voice over it all.

"**Kasterborous....Gallifrey...Time War......TARDIS........Dalek…Chameleon arc…Chaos…Child of Time…The Darkness is coming…The Doctor…" **

So much to see and know.

Barely even begun.

She gave a mixture of a gasp and a sob as she felt a second heart grow within her chest cavity. Binary cardiovascular system- her mind instantly supplied.

Alien.

Time Lord.

'NO BEING SHALL MURDER THEIR PAST SELF, THIS BEING THE ULTIMATE VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OF TIME.'

The glow faded, leaving her wide eyed and gasping on the floor. And she felt the brush of a mind as young as her own, which was so very _gladgladglad _to see her, had been worried when she hadn't been okay right away.

Because she was his pilot and he her TARDIS.

And then she knew.

Everything.

'TO TIMELORD SHALL DISTORT HISTORY AS THEY KNOW IT. FIXED POINTS IN TIME CANNOT BE ALTERED.'

* * *

She awoke, bleary eyed and confused, her head thudding as though someone was playing a samba.

She staggered to her feet, and then flailed, reaching out for something, anything to catch her fall. Grasping hold of what seemed to be a console.

She gave a soft noise of pain, as her gaze fell about her in the strange room that looked like something out of a sci-fi film, with it's golden lighting and the strange piece of machinery that took up the majority of the room.

'Control panel' her mind supplied.

She stumbled back, wide-wide eyes.

"Where am I?" Buffy questioned as she looked at the place surrounding her. One moment she was staring at toothbrushes, the next eye blink she was-Where exactly?"In an entirely new galaxy, actually," answered a Voice. It came out of a swirl of mist, and Buffy for the life of her, had a time trying to decipher the gender of the /she/it smiled. "Hello, Buffy. My name is Janus, god of Change and Beginnings.""Huh . . .Sing me a new one. I mean, seriously, I've had a ridiculous number of chubby, overweight vamps going by Lestat." A god? A real god? Buffy mentally slapped the side of her head, trying to clear it up, falling back onto her default setting of pure snark.

No way this was a God, it was more likely that he/she like a demon impersonating a god-Or having typical demonic delusions of grandeur. "Besides there are no Gods, the only beings who claim to be so are manifestations of the old ones who were…" Her voice trailed grinned in amusement. "Banished from this plane upon the creation of the universe. And how do you know that?"Buffy's eyes fluttered "I…I don't…"

"Oh I think you do, you're denying your new self Buffy, and that isn't on. Besides, that isn't your name anymore, is it?" Janus chuckled, and Buffy found herself nodding, Buffy was not her name her name was…

'_Hidden.'_

"Names have too much power to be told." She murmured, almost chanting, repeating a lesson taught as a child.

But it wasn't a lesson She had been taught, she gave quiet groan hand going to her aching temples.

Yet they were lessons, ones she knew as well as breathing but, nonetheless, hadn't been taught…Or had she?

With a groan she clutched at her head, as it burned, as the knowledge she'd tried to ignore in one last and futile attempt to deny what she had become."And there we have it Slayer." Janus smirked unfazed by her pain. "There's our little Time Lady. How about a little flashback to get our non-regular views up to date with the program. Ethan Rayne, that nice shop owner who sold you the pretty costume? Yeah, bad guy. A Chaos mage to be specific, which is where the 'God of Chaos'- yours truly, comes into play. You see our silly little sorcerer decided to play a Halloween trick on that yummy looking Watcher of yours, who was quite the hellion in the day. And well, Ethan decided to abuse my generosity when he invoked my Name and Power. He cursed every thing he sold with a eensy-weensy latent spell; and then used blood magic to activate said magic. Which would have been all well and good had things gone to plan. That little bit of magic would have turned you and everyone who bought his tainted goods into their costumes-In your case, a screaming colonial air-head. What Mr Rayne intended was for utter chaos, everyone to becoming their costumes, can you imagine it? Hundreds of little children becoming what people fear or long to be. Parents torn apart as their children turned into ravenous werewolves, demons, vampires, and any number of creatures. The sheer chaos would have been quite…delightful." The 'God' wearing Rayne's face took on a dreamy quality.

"You're one sick little puppy." Buffy hissed in disgust as she all but trembled with outrage at the thought of a massacre of children, just as it had been when her home…

But her home hadn't burnt…What the hell was going on?

These memories, this…grief…

It wasn't hers.

"But things didn't exactly go to plan." 'Janus' tutted, shaking its head sadly, mocking her. "All thanks to you little missy. After all no-one expects the Spanish Inquisition, and more importantly in your case, no-one expected the bizarre turn the spell took, as silly little Ethan spelled that watch unknowingly. A used Chameleon arch, left on Earth and forgotten by its previous bearer" Janus motioned to the watch still clutched loosely in one of her hands. "A watch worn by a Slayer, possibly one of the most…receptive magical conduits," the he/she leered at her, making goosebumps break out across her skin, before she shook sense into herself.

She was a Slayer gosh-darn-it and she was going to act like it.

"A chameleon arch?" Buffy replied, almost lost in her own world. "It absorbed the spell?"

"Ding ding ding. You win a prize." Snorted 'Janus', kicking back in a lounger that had appeared as if from no-where. "Yes, your little watch interfered with the activation spell and that was a situation that nobody had been expecting, really came out of the Left field: After all, the Time Lord's are an all but extinct breed after that nasty little Time War." Tutted Janus and Buffy barely restrained herself as he spoke so casually of…of what?

"Needless to say, more powerful ones than I took advantaged of the situation, and when you opened the arch whilst the spell was till in progress you drew and diverted all of its available energies into you. Normally, that level of energy pouring into a weak human vessel would have cremated the human, and then created a backlash that would have done the same to the spell caster," continued the so-called airily, in away that made her really want to punch something, namely eyed Janus suspiciously. "You said 'normally' . . ." she prompted smiled, and Buffy shuddered. "Oh, you're smart enough to figure this one out for yourself, Slayer! The Dumb Blond routine has no mileage here-And, you should be grateful you put away the wig. If you hadn't, you would have been the state's next bottle blond."Buffy fingered her loose blond hair."To avoid any confusion in that entirely, newly re-ordered noggin of your, let's walk through this together." Janus nodded patronisingly, and entirely too smugly for his own damn good. "The Slayer is a conduit for magical power right, channels the well-spring of energy from which the Slayer-essence is sourced. . .Ipso facto, power that would vaporise any everyday-schmuck, can be channelled through you. You with me so far? Good. That little chaos spell bound the wearer of his cursed costumes to the identity behind them. If you thought you were a, say some inbred, and overall weak little noble woman, then that's what you would have become; including all the prejudices and preconceptions of that class of woman." Janus smirked as Buffy's eyes widened in realisation, "but you altered your costume-with the Watch. And even more importantly you opened the watch. You reached out and unlocked the essence, and the Slayer you are sucked it in like a vacuum, and in doing so shifted you irreparably. And so, ladies and gentlemen, a new _protector _of the Universe has emerged, a TARDIS even got tossed into the bargain, along with draining that little hellhole of the previously almost unlimited energy it once had. It's less gushing evil than the leaky tap now. Congrats you just destroyed a hell mouth by wearing a different costume. With all that energy pouring into you through the watch and through you into this TARDIS, well- What was it you went as, Buffy?" The God mumbled something under her breath.

"What was that?" Janus leant against the console, and she had the urge to smack his hand away.

"A Time-Lady."

"Bingo." Janus crowed, eagerly. "The Last Time Lady, that's you. There is no way to change you back, bar another chameleon arch and even then you'll just be a Gallifreyan in disguise. An extinct breed, one of the last two of you kind. You could re-create the species. Ya up for breeding slayer? He likes feisty blondes"

"What?" Buffy shrieked, mortified and outraged all at the same time.

"Just a suggestion kiddo. Anyway, onto the important stuff. You're presence in Earth-history has been well…erased to put it bluntly." Janus shrugged.

"So my mom…" Buffy choked out.

"Mommy, Scoobies and Watchers don't even know you exist. Their lives are as though they never met you. Different slayer, different bad guys, blah blah." Janus airly waved a hand. "Though technically she's not you mother anymore. You're pure Gallifreyan. Not even a smudge of human, so if anyone's your mother it's the time lady that the sell based its knowledge on. The owner, well former owner, of that little time piece of yours."

"Knowledge?" Buffy blinked.

"Oh that hasn't hit you yet?" A wicked grin crossed Janus' features. "It will."

Buffy growled softly, "the PtB would never let…"

"Those bottom feeders? Like they care for anything but their own agenda. Besides, you are beyond their authority now, in fact, you're pretty much ten times above them in the universal hierarchy. You're a Lady of Time and they are but the muck on your booties." Janus gave what appeared to be a very self-satisfied grin.

"What's in this for you anyway? I mean, by name alone it's pretty obvious your not exactly big with the…" She trailed off.

"Universe-saving. Nah, that ain't really my bag of chips, however the chaos that every Time Lord leaves in their wake? That's a different story. There was once a whole race of you little chaos-causing geniuses, now there's one. And The Doctor- bless him- may be the most chaos-ridden of them all, but sometimes it's just not enough." Janus rocked gleefully, making Buffy feel slightly ill.

"You have issues, you know that right?" She sneered.

"Well duh! Where've you been?" Smirked the he/she.

"Wait! Hold the phone. Stop the presses." Buffy flailed as a sudden realisation hit. "I'm not a 'gally-what-sit', I'm not an alien so how am I supposed to hold the knowledge, technically the spell should end at the end of the night, and I go back to regular-old Buffy, know that much!"Janus snickered. "Oh, no, no, no . . .Buffy, that's not going to work, like I said, all the energy of the 'Hellmouth' channelled into you midget-like frame. Altering you at the genetic level, there's no going back now, you've changed things…forever."

Buffy stuttered in a desperate gasp, there had to be a way at fixing this, maybe she could just Dorathy herself out of this whole mess, click of a pair of stylish heels and home she was? Because the pain in her head was enough to let her know that there was no way in hell she was sleeping right now.

"Anywho. We still have a few things to walk through-Like your transport." The God clapped his hands eagerly."Transport?" Buffy repeated, numbly. "What kind of transport? A time turner?" She snorted sceptically, thinking of the necklace-time-thing in the Harry Potter book she'd read way back when. She was a 'Time Lady' after all.

It kind of brought with it the assumption of, travelling in time maybe.

"No. Better! Your TARDIS, but you're going to need that time lady knowledge fully unlocked to wield it through time and space, so remember, you asked for it!" the God grinned. He waved his hand in front of Buffy's face and a blinding white light replaced the room. Buffy gasped as her very mind seemed to exploded outwards, and she became the centre of a vortex of pain and energy.

Buffy let out an almighty scream as she collapsed to the floor once again, the knowledge in her mind awakening all at the same time and if her biology had been anything but Gallifreyan she would have been incinerated by now.

Burning out her synapses in an slight as that relief was, it allowed Buffy to think-A Voice, Janus, urged and encouraged her to do . . .

What? Confused, Buffy listened carefully. Buffy felt herself being guided. Something was nudging her mind to something close by and…

A mind connected with her own suddenly, welcoming her into its protective embrace.

Not it's, she realised, _his_.

He was young, like her in Time Lord age. Eager for adventure and new horizons for them to explore together and it loved her, cherished her. His pilot, his creator, his Time Lady. Her TARDIS, Buffy realized with sudden astonished clarity. Something she could use to travel, through the time vortex, through time and space, bigger on the inside and with so much within. Her home, all that was left of her home world. Her get away-A secret hideaway for herself, in case things got too ugly. The thought became clearer, and Buffy's motives shifted away from pain relief, to escape and felt her TARDIS shift its interior as all the knowledge of a Time Lady filled her, shifting to match his pilot. Raw materials were culled from the surrounding space; altered on a molecular level, refined and shaped. All in a globe of energy that Buffy seemed to be holding together with her mind alone. Buffy sighed contently as the knowledge stopped hurtin, her ship helping her bear the pain, supporting her in her time of need as thoughts, memories, facts, figures and everything in between crammed its way into her head. She felt her TARDIS begin to alter within, to match her, to fit her and she momentarily forgetting the pain stalking the edges of her conscious. Drawing on the power of the Eye of Harmony to fuel the alterations.

That was where she was, she realised, encircling the massive black hole and energy source that was occasionally used to power TARDIS , things come to a final end and the knowledge and alterations slowed down and the massive ship that would traverse the time vortex was complete.

Re-arranged in a style its pilot could connect with.

The walls of soft golden material that shimmered unlike anything on earth, styled almost like coral in its appearance as curved 'branches' came off to make supports and areas to perch around the console room.

The central console was slightly hexagonal , glowing with a soft blue light as the time-shift centraliser reached up to the roof, shiny, new and raring to go.

Almost as up to date as a newly grown TARDIS, which he was to an extent.

The floor was a mixture of grating and metal sheeting that echoed beneath her feet as she stood carefully, lifting her dress carefully so as not to trip on the skirts even with her extreme balancing skills.

She knew she should feel sad, that her humanity had been taken and she'd been changed, and yet…

As she watched time unfurl around her she couldn't help but smile at the wonder of it all.

A new chance, a new chance without an early expiration date, Rassilon, if she was careful then she would live over 1000 years. Even now her own Time Lord clock had manipulated itself, allying her level of knowledge she'd obtained form the Time Lady known as 'The Theorist' to whom the watch had originally belonged and whom had been killed during the time war and created an identity for her around it.

She was the daughter of The Theorist and her mate, loomed into existence and brought into the world before the time war, and was apparently now 100 in non-linear time. A teenager really, by her new species standards.

She'd apparently been very gifted, obtaining a degree in Advanced mathematics from the university in the great citadel, and passing her TARDIS test with flying colours. Which she silently found hilarious, had the people fixing up this identity seen nothing of her driving skills- they were not of the good.

Though she supposed the instantaneous awareness and reactions which hindered her and had caused her to be voted most likely to 'commit vehicular homicide' in her Driver's Ed classes, would support her exponentially here.

And she'd never been…awful at math.

Better that than the dreaded French.

Due to the Time War the education of younglings was sped up, faster than years previous, and from what her memories showed her they were forced through early bonding and sent out as…

As canon fodder.

Her hands clenched angrily.

They'd used children to draw fire away from Gallifrey.

Those stupid, dusty old senators who lorded over them in the council.

She had run, taken her TARDIS and run, her mind informing her that she'd done something she would have been disgraced for, should she ever return. And yet it had been the right thing to do, she knew deep down. Making herself human she had hidden on Earth and recently re-awoken after opening the chameleon arch.

She couldn't help but whistle to herself at the sheer detail and emotion woven into her new 'memories', those bastard Old-Ones had been thorough now hadn't they?

She gritted her teeth, clenching her fingers into fists until blood dripped from the cuts her nails had made.

Her TARDIS made a noise of discontent in her mind, upset that his pilot should hurt herself uncaringly, releasing the glowy-bugs into the air that Buffy recognised as nano-genes; watching in awe as they healed her hands almost instantly, then they went to work on the minor bruises across her frame.

"Thanks…" She murmured in a language she knew to be Gallifreyan, and her ship hummed its contentment, wrapping her in its mental embrace and making her feel safer than she ever had before.

Loved like never before.

In a way no human could ever understand.

'_Together?'_ The TARDIS' voice was youthful and hesitant in her mind.

"Forever." She smiled softly, instantly sending out a reassuring mental burst of love she held for this sentient ship that was more home than anything she'd ever experienced before, minus the image of red grass; orange skies and slivered trees that hung in the back of her mind. Minus those nights when she'd been small and curled up with her warm milk as her Dad had read her stories, before she knew the monsters under the bed were real, and her Dad could fail her.

The two sets of memories made her sway slightly, inducing vertigo as they combined into one whole.

Twice the knowledge for fifty times the utter confusion.

Her ship hummed, happily. Nudging her mentally, encouraging her as she shifted the setting of the TARDIS, pulling them through the vortex and choosing to hover at about the period of which she'd once been a part. She need to check on everyone of course, make sure they were alive and well.

They couldn't just be forgotten, no matter that they had forgotten her.

"Ohhh…" She groaned aloud, rubbing her hand to her forehead as she felt her cortex aching at the sudden influx of knowledge. She could see every aspect of Time and of Space.

She was no longer Buffy Summers, Chosen One, Slayer and fate's bitch, she wasn't even human. She was a child of time, a citizen of Gallifrey, she had stared into the untempered schism and had seen the secrets of the universe, and become a Time lord [lady technically] in doing so. She had to remember that, she was damned well going to need some rest.

Preferably for the next _year._

She mentally grumbled, allowing her feet to lead her deeper into the infinite machine, as her TARDIS unobtrusively led her to what were classed as '_her'_ rooms.

The main bedroom, filled with all the things she'd owned in Sunnydale bar the clothes which she assumed would be in the massive wardrobe. She was however, too tired to even change out of the mass of skirts she currently wore.

Her mind had been forced through such a dramatic shift- from basic human education to one of the highest educational degrees within Gallifreyan society. It was bound to need a while to kick start, especially whilst she got used to her extra-sensory perception once more.

No more psychic invasions and thrall for her, no sir.

But a name…

Her true name was a whisper, hidden in her mind from all but her.

And even she wasn't all that sure what it was.

She would need a title.

But in the end there was really, only one true choice.

She was The Slayer.

And she always would be.

* * *

Fin

A/N: Ideas regarding what Time Period's Buffy's going to visit are appreciate, as she establishes herself as a Time Traveller before the Doctor shows up. Her companion's already been decided upon and should be interesting to write for.

Plus the 'commandments' are some Laws of Time my friend found for me.


End file.
